Synopses & Reviews
describes the fears, anger, and guilt--personal, familial, societal, political, and historical--that comprise a life. The figure of the speaker's maternal grandmother who was institutionalized for five decades serves as an overriding metaphor for this haunting, bold new work by an essential American poet. from ""
Review
"Lovely . . . moving . . . funny." Washington Post
Review
"As [Collier] shows us so adeptly, so skillfully and beautifully in his newest collection, it's precisely in the face of tragedy and loss that [poems such as these] must be written and read." Rumpus
Review
"Collier's sixth collection engages with childhood, fatherhood, and family life, in the living present and memorial past, a history explored with brilliantly precise detail and originality of perspective." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Though the wide-ranging content of these highly personal poems may seem catch-as-catch-can, it's clear that for the poet they are hard-won fragments in the effort to assemble a coherent sense of selfhood, a quest many readers will recognize." Library Journal
Synopsis
"Profound, emotional, sparing, loving, and sometimes very funny. . . . [Collier is] always the consummate craftsman."--
About the Author
Michael Collier's The Ledge was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He teaches at the University of Maryland and is the director of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.